Tian Tian nearly dropped her jaw when she saw the person getting out of the car.
“Am I seeing things?”
Zhou Haoting shook his head. “No, it really is him.”
“This… how is this guy here with the trading company people?”
Zhou Haoting narrowed his eyes slightly. He thought of this trading company’s background. When he’d first started working with them, it was precisely because he valued their overseas connections. Word was their shareholders included Europeans and Americans, and the general manager who handled business on the surface was a Shenzhen local.
This type of trading company was very common. Without a bit of overseas background, you couldn’t make it in this line of work.
Zhou Haoting had worked with them for quite a while, and the people he dealt with were only at the general manager level. Ordinary shareholders wouldn’t come out to negotiate supply contracts with factories.
Now Xiao Ming had appeared in the trading company’s team. Needless to say, he definitely had connections to the shareholders behind the scenes. It was just unclear exactly how.
He composed himself and smiled as he walked over. “Boss Liu, welcome to visit the factory.”
Boss Liu was a slightly pot-bellied, smiling middle-aged man. Hearing Zhou Haoting’s words, he smiled and replied, “Haha, Boss Zhou, this isn’t my first time here. No need for such a big show.” As he spoke, he reached out and shook Zhou Haoting’s hand. His other hand patted his shoulder, looking like old buddies.
Zhou Haoting said, “Haha, of course I have to come out and welcome you. Thanks to Boss Liu, our products wouldn’t have reached the world so easily.”
After several minutes of mutual business flattery, the two led their teams into the factory.
Tian Tian walked behind Zhou Haoting, her eyes flicking from time to time toward Xiao Ming not far away. He followed behind Boss Liu, yet had none of the bearing of a subordinate.
Xiao Ming clearly noticed Tian Tian’s gaze too and gave her a meaningful smile.
Tian Tian: Psycho…
The trading company’s visit had a simple procedure. Factory tour, product display, order negotiation, business dinner.
Tian Tian didn’t specifically participate. She just observed and learned from the sidelines, occasionally taking notes, learning how to deal with a trading company.
And Zhou Haoting likewise did what he was supposed to do, ignoring Xiao Ming.
This made the other man restrain himself.
But during the negotiations between the two sides, Tian Tian confirmed that Xiao Ming, like her, was an unofficial participant.
At noon, Zhou Haoting led the trading company people to a nearby restaurant. Tian Tian didn’t go along. She turned and headed for the cafeteria. But halfway there, she saw Xiao Ming walking toward her.
“Is something wrong?” Tian Tian looked at the man before her, genuinely puzzled why he’d come over.
Xiao Ming said, “Aren’t you curious why I came with the trading company?”
Tian Tian rolled her eyes at him. “Not curious.”
Seeing this, Xiao Ming shrugged. “Alright, my bad. You’ve seen Ah Meng, right?”
Tian Tian raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Meng Ge and the others were sent away by you, weren’t they?”
Xiao Ming said, “Who knows?”
Seeing him like this, Tian Tian knew she wouldn’t get anything out of him. But this person definitely had a huge connection to He Cheng’s downfall. As for his motive? At most, it was either a grudge or someone behind him.
Seeing Tian Tian ignore him, Xiao Ming followed along on his own. “I heard you also want to go the trade route. Interested in cooperating?”
Tian Tian said, “I don’t cooperate with people whose background I don’t know.”
Xiao Ming said, “I’m Xiao Ming, a good person. I’m preparing to do foreign trade business now. I’m selecting products on the mainland. If you have suitable products, I can place orders.”
Tian Tian wasn’t clear on his motives. But normal business dealings—she didn’t mind. Anyway, the clothing samples she’d prepared were scheduled to be shown to the trading company people in the afternoon. Now that Xiao Ming was interested, Tian Tian didn’t refuse. After all, selling to anyone was still selling.
So the two skipped lunch and turned back to the office that had been specially cleared out.
—
“These are all samples. See if there’s anything you’re interested in.”
Xiao Ming looked at the table full of samples, especially the several bikinis with pitifully little fabric, and his mouth twitched.
“You…”
Now it was Tian Tian’s turn to shrug. “This is business. See anything you like?”
Xiao Ming’s mouth twitched again. He shut his mouth and started picking through them again.
Half an hour later, looking at the two “cultivation” T-shirts Xiao Ming had picked out, plus all the bikinis, Tian Tian gave him a thumbs-up. “Good eye.”
Xiao Ming said, “It’s your designs that are good.”
Tian Tian didn’t dither. She immediately asked, “What’s the order quantity? What sizes? Which country for export? Any other requirements?”
Seeing this, Xiao Ming inwardly admired Tian Tian’s professionalism. The mainland was fairly conservative in its customs. An ordinary woman wouldn’t dare make bikinis. Much less stand calmly in front of a man like him and pitch goods. A woman like this was really impressive.
Tian Tian didn’t know Xiao Ming was evaluating her inwardly. Even if she did, she wouldn’t care. She was making money—nothing shameful about it.
Besides, the profit on bikinis was actually quite a bit higher than on T-shirts. If possible, she could shift toward this area in the future.
Under her persistent questioning, she actually managed to finalize a few orders. The quantity wasn’t large—barely enough to fill a single 20-foot container. But that was already enough.
The first order! Tian Tian hadn’t expected it to work out at all.
Sure enough, when she later communicated with the trading company people, they were very interested in her samples. But because Tian Tian’s factory hadn’t even been set up—not even a shell company—they naturally rejected her.
After seeing these people off, Tian Tian pulled out a contract and placed it in front of Zhou Haoting. Smiling, she said, “Look!”
“Mm, this…” Zhou Haoting was surprised for a moment. Then he caught on. “An order from Xiao Ming?”
Tian Tian nodded. “Mm hm, strange, right?”
Zhou Haoting said, “It is a bit strange. When he didn’t go to lunch, I guessed he might come find you.”
Tian Tian asked, “Did you find out where he comes from?”
Zhou Haoting flipped through the contract. Seeing there were no problems, he said, “Boss Liu said he was sent over by the major American shareholder. Said he came to the trading company to learn.”
Tian Tian said, “The major American shareholder!”
From the He Cheng matter, you could see what kind of person Xiao Ming was. The person behind him was American. That meant this major American shareholder probably had a grudge against He Cheng.
So now Xiao Ming was in contact with her, and with Zhou Haoting’s business. Could it be that this major American shareholder had some connection to Zhou Haoting?
It definitely had nothing directly to do with her. Her family wasn’t local—they had no loves or hatreds in Shenzhen.
Zhou Haoting naturally thought of this too. His brows furrowed slightly. “Tonight I’ll go ask my uncle. This contract is fine. We can do it.”
Tian Tian thought so too. No matter what Xiao Ming’s purpose was, the contract in hand was fine. The transaction method was EXW factory delivery. As long as inspection passed, once the container was sealed, nothing else had anything to do with her. Payment was by wire transfer—thirty percent upfront, the balance before the container was sealed and loaded onto the ship. All the risk she bore was minimal.
Even customs declaration was handled by the trading company. She only needed to provide accurate packing lists and packing invoices.
So this order could absolutely be done.
It was just that the delivery time was a bit tight. She needed to hurry and order fabric, then go talk to Ye Lifeng.
Yes, for now there was no better partner garment factory. Ye Lifeng’s factory had expanded again. Going to him was definitely right.
“Don’t worry about the Xiao Ming matter. I’ll have people look into the American shareholder behind him.”
Before leaving, Zhou Haoting said to Tian Tian, “Just focus on this order first. If you do well, there might be repeat orders.”
“I know. You don’t need to worry too much either. If Xiao Ming dares show up in person, nine times out of ten there’s no ill intent.”
If there were ill intent, it would be a knife in the back.
—
In the days that followed, Tian Tian got busy again. She was either ordering fabric or on the way to order fabric.
Most of the fabric could be ordered from Chen Jiahao’s textile factory. Some ordinary fabrics were sourced locally. As for Ye Lifeng, he’d taken on too many school uniform orders.
“Like this—I’ll distribute some of the school uniform orders to the villagers to make.”
Arriving at Ye Lifeng’s garment factory, Tian Tian found him with familiar ease and explained her requirements. Surprised, Ye Lifeng immediately made a decision.
Tian Tian said, “Alright. First see how much you can handle. If the delivery deadline is too tight, see about farming out some of the orders.”
Everything went smoothly until the female workers discovered the goods to be made were bikinis.
Looking at the samples Tian Tian brought out, the pattern maker and the cutter were both stunned.
“This…”
The older ones were fine, but the younger ones turned their faces away, looking a bit embarrassed.
Tian Tian didn’t say much. At times like this, saying too much would actually change the nature of things. She just acted as if they were making ordinary clothes, communicating with the few master workers, watching them replicate the pattern and cut the fabric. Only then did she nod. “If this batch is made well, there won’t be a shortage of orders in the future.”
Hearing this, the workers were delighted. Factory Manager Ye had just said the price for this batch was high. If they kept getting orders like this, they could earn more money in the same amount of time.
So no one bothered agonizing over the fact that the clothes they were making were as embarrassing as underwear.
As Tian Tian was leaving, Ye Lifeng gave her a thumbs-up.
Tian Tian waved her hand, looking like this was all basic stuff.
“Be solid on the inspection. If it’s done well, there really will be repeat orders.”
This wasn’t Tian Tian drawing a pie in the sky—there really was that possibility. The bikinis she designed—never mind the styles—just the color schemes were what was popular in Europe and America. Although it wasn’t some big brand, as budget goods exported to Europe and America, there was definitely a market.
Everything went smoothly after that, except that quite a few people in Ye Lifeng’s village gossiped about the goods they were making actually being bikinis.
Some improper people spread all kinds of talk, scaring some of the female workers into not daring to do the work. They were afraid making these bikinis would get them cursed as sluts.
When the news reached her, Tian Tian was speechless to death.
What was wrong with bikinis? Wearing them to swim was perfectly normal. Wasn’t it better than those people who went into the sea wearing nothing at all?
Tian Tian really couldn’t understand those gossiping people. But she was the client. She was the boss placing the order. How to solve this problem was the other party’s—Ye Lifeng’s—problem.
If he couldn’t solve even this problem, then he wouldn’t be able to handle the orders that came later.
Fortunately, Ye Lifeng didn’t let her down. A day later, word came that the garment factory had resumed normal production.
When Zhou Haoting heard about it, he looked at Tian Tian curiously. “Thinking of developing in this direction?”
Tian Tian said, “Depends on how the orders go later.”
A high-profit business was something everyone wanted to do.
Zhou Haoting said, “By the way, about Xiao Ming—I’ve found out some new information.”
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